Huish Head Start 2020

Preparing for A Level History (Early Modern course).

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Early Modern History

Early Modern History: Religious Conflict and the Church in England, c1529-c1570 Spain in the Age of Discovery, 1469-1598 Coursework on the Portuguese Empire

Preparing for A Level History

If you are considering taking History you need to be ready to analyse and evaluate ideas about the past, including your own. History is a vibrant, evolving subject and so learning a set of ‘facts’ does not mean you have ‘done’ a subject area. You need to be interested in finding out: about causes and consequences, about change and continuity, about why events and individuals are historically significant, and about why historians differ in their interpretations. Gaining some knowledge encourages a desire for more, so be ready for a course that raises as many questions as it attempts to answer. This is the joy (and sometimes frustration) of history, and this is what makes it such an interactive and exciting subject.

Learn about the past Understand the modern world Know truth from reality Spot fake news Enjoy learning about interesting people Shock your friends and family with gory details!

Over the next few pages are some activities to give you an idea of the topics we study in A Level History

Activity 1: Read this summary and answer the questions at the end Henry VIII and the Reformation

During the 1520s, some parts of Europe - not very many as it happened - decided to break away from papal control and set up their own Protestant Churches. These Protestants, initially inspired by Martin Luther, based mainly in parts of Germany, claimed that they were reforming the Church in line with the teachings of the Bible. Hence these changes have become known as the Reformation. The changes in religion in England, which started in the second part of the reign of Henry VIII, are known as the ‘English Reformation'. This was a process which started in the late 1520s and ended with England becoming a Protestant country by the middle years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, probably in the 1570s.

The impact of the Reformation in the 1520s

In England, during the 1520s, it seemed very unlikely that such reforming ideas would catch on. Henry VIII associated the Reformation with rebellion and disorder, and he wrote a book against Luther's religious ideas. Wolsey, as a cardinal and papal legate, was naturally very much opposed to the spread of new religious ideas (known by the Catholic Church as heresy). Moreover, the Catholic Church in England was not widely unpopular in the 1520s.

The Henrician Reformation

During the late 1520s, quite unexpectedly, relations between Henry VIII and the Pope gradually worsened. The first moves in this 'reformation' process started for the simple reason that Henry VIII wanted to divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon, and the Pope, who had the power to grant divorces, was unable to give his consent. Henry VIII had decided that not only was his marriage with Catherine illegal, but the reason why he had no male heir was that he was living in sin with her. He also felt that a male heir was needed in order to ensure a peaceful succession and the continuation of orderly rule in England. In 1529, Wolsey fell from power as a result of this problem and, during 1533-4, Henry VIII passed a series of laws that cut England off from Rome and declared that the king, not the Pope, was, and always had been, Supreme Head of the English Church.

This was followed by the dissolution of the English monasteries between 1536 and 1540. Religious institutions that had stood for many centuries were swept away and their lands and wealth were taken by the king. New Articles of Religion and Injunctions on religious practice were introduced at the same time and, in 1538, the king decreed that every parish should have an English Bible. Henry VIII found reformers like Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell to help him bring about these changes. In some ways, this seemed like a revolution in the relationship between Church and State. In another way, the changes were not so wide-ranging as they first appeared; they merely confirmed the king's existing power over the Church.

Once Henry VIII had got what he wanted by 1534 (he had divorced Catherine and married Anne Boleyn) he had no further interest in religious change in England. He wished to die as he had lived, as a ‘Roman’ Catholic. In the process of gaining his divorce, Henry had abolished the jurisdiction of the Pope in England. He replaced it with rule by the monarch in Parliament. Matters such as divorce, traditionally seen as part of the Church's work, could now be decided in England by English courts with no reference to Rome. Clergymen now owed their obedience to the English monarch and not to the Pope. The changes to religion in the period of Henry VIII’s reign (1509- 1547) are known as the ‘Henrician Reformation’, and this period saw swings towards, and away from, the reformed religion. In most matters of belief and in many of religious practice England remained recognisably Catholic, if not Roman Catholic by 1547.

Questions

1. Who inspired the Protestant Reformation? 2. When did the Reformation start to happen in England? 3. When did the process of the Reformation end? 4. How did people in England feel about the Catholic Church in the 1520s? 5. Why did Henry VIII want to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon? 6. Why did Cardinal Wolsey fall from power? 7. When were English monasteries dissolved? 8. Which two men called Thomas helped Henry achieve his reforms? 9. When did Henry say that churches should have an English bible? 10. What were Henry’s religious beliefs when he died in 1547?

Activity 2: Key individuals research:

Please research the lives of the following key individuals and complete the table

Name Dates (birth- Brief summary of their role, beliefs, power and life death) Cardinal Wolsey

Thomas Cranmer

Stephen Gardiner

Thomas Cromwell

Duke of Norfolk

Catherine of Aragon

Anne Boleyn

Spain Spain in the Age of Discovery, 1469-1598 Read this summary and complete the crossword below

When Ferdinand II (1479–1516; also known as Ferdinand V of Castile from 1474) succeeded to the Crown of Aragon in 1479, the union of Aragon (roughly eastern Spain) and Castile (roughly western Spain) was finally achieved, and the Trastámara became the second most powerful monarchs in Europe, after the Valois of France. The different royal houses of the Iberian Peninsula had long sought a union of their crowns and had practiced intermarriage for generations. Nevertheless, the union of the Crowns of Castile and Aragon was far from inevitable in the last quarter of the 15th century. A union between Castile and Portugal was equally feasible, and it has been argued that it would have made more sense, for it would have allowed the two western Hispanic kingdoms to concentrate on overseas exploration and expansion, and it would not have involved Castile in Aragon’s traditional rivalry with France. The reasons that led John II of Aragon to arrange the marriage of his son and heir, Ferdinand, with Isabella of Castile in 1469 were essentially tactical: he needed Castilian support against French aggression in the Pyrenees. In Castile an influential party of magnates, led by Alfonso Carillo, archbishop of Toledo (who later reversed himself), and opposed to King Henry IV, supported the succession claims of the princess Isabella, the king’s half sister, against those of his daughter, Joan. They were anxious for the help and leadership of the Aragonese prince and content with the alliance of a country in which the magnates had such far-reaching privileges as the Aragonese nobility. It needed a forged papal dispensation for the marriage, the blackmailing of Henry IV into (wrongly) denying the paternity of his daughter (Joan), and, finally, several years of bitter civil war before Ferdinand and Isabella defeated Joan’s Castilian supporters and her husband, Afonso V of Portugal.

Ferdinand and Isabella ruled jointly in both kingdoms and were known as the Catholic Monarchs (Reyes Católicos). It was, however, a union of crowns and not of kingdoms. In size, institutions, traditions, and, partly, even language, the two kingdoms differed greatly. Within the kingdom of Aragon, Aragon and Valencia each had about 270,000 inhabitants, of whom some 20 percent and more than 30 percent, respectively, were Muslims and Moriscos (Muslims officially converted to Christianity). Catalonia had about 300,000 inhabitants. In each of these kingdoms the powers of the crown were severely limited. The barons ruled their estates like kings, dispensing arbitrary justice over their peasants. In Catalonia they had the right to wage private war. In Aragon anyone arrested by order of the king could put himself under the jurisdiction of a justicia who held his office for life and was therefore independent of the king’s pleasure. It was this highest judge who crowned the kneeling king and made him swear to observe the fueros, the laws and privileges, of the kingdom.

Ferdinand made no attempt to change this position; nor did he do so in Catalonia, where the crown had just emerged successfully from a long and confused civil war. The nobility and the urban aristocracy of Barcelona had been faced with violent social movements of the peasants and the lower classes of the cities and were themselves riven by family and factional strife. The crown intervened, mainly on the side of the lower classes but, inevitably, in alliance with some of the noble factions and against the French who had taken the opportunity to occupy Cerdagne and Roussillon. In 1486 Ferdinand settled the Catalan problem by a compromise, the Sentencia de Guadalupe, which effectively abolished serfdom and the more-oppressive feudal obligations of the peasants in return for monetary payments to the lords.

Otherwise, the political and legal privileges of the rural nobility and the urban aristocracy were left intact. Effectively, therefore, Ferdinand made no attempt to strengthen the powers of the crown and to give the principality a more efficient system of government. But Ferdinand had given Catalonia peace and the opportunity to make good the ravages of the civil wars and the losses of commercial markets to Italian competitors. This opportunity was only partially taken by the Catalans. They failed completely to prevent the Genoese from establishing a dominant position in the economy of Castile and, more especially, in the vital and rapidly expanding Atlantic trade of Sevilla. The union of the Crowns of Aragon and Castile therefore led to neither a political and institutional union nor to an economic integration of the Iberian Peninsula.

Activity 3: Crossword on Spain

Activity 4: Please watch as many of these documentaries as possible before starting history in September. For each one you watch try to take an A4 page of notes detailing the main points made and the dates on any key events.

Taking accurate and useful notes is an essential part of being a successful student, there are different methods to practise to improve this skill. Use the following links for ideas on:

Cornell note taking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=ErSjc1PEGKE

Dual-coding https://www.learningscientists.org/dual-coding

Mind-mapping https://app.mindmapmaker.org/#m:new Use one of these techniques, or combine them, to take notes on:

The Reformation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o8oIELbNxE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCrYdSh1uCk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oisw1l5dYho

Henry VIII & Anne Boleyn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0aI6QWV97s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNP502RPeKk

Henry VIII https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LzGFr58wIY

Cromwell https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2j3rqh

Edward VI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACQy3x3pJ88

Mary I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eaMix9x4HE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbClOtCTR54

Elizabeth I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylP6oZgSeuI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jmhak-RI67o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0BEaSnadtQ

Spain:

The Spanish Inquisition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY-pS6iLFuc The Art of Spain https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3htuvg

Charles V https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRYzW3BSj0I

The Spanish Empire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjhIzemLdos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDupyuvA0b8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E9WU9TGrec

Extension activity: Once you have completed all the above please take the chance to extend your learning if you would like to. Roehampton University, London, have put together a free online course which provides very good background for our History A-level. https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/the-tudors

Please bring all your notes and answers with

you to your first lessons at Huish